Season 5 for ASOIAF: The Miniatures Game is now out, and each Faction has had some form of change form Tactics Cards, to Commanders, to NCUs, and Units. There are some universal changes, rewording for simplified gaming, and complete reworks. After a month hiatus, I will be giving my biggest hot takes of the new season.
Heavy Cavalry Are Not Going Anywhere
Heavy Cavalry have featured in most top performing lists in several tournaments. When I say top performing, this has been sometimes dozens of lists at events. Their power on the charge, combined with their survivability, mobility, and additional rules, result in something many other Units cannot compete with, and are incredibly easy to use in comparison to an alternate Unit which would need more coordination to achieve the same effect.
It’s like the choice of picking Golden Company Swordsmen when they were bonkers good, why pick something worse when this does it better and with less effort? This line of understanding is something that plagues all games, and Heavy Cavalry is just the next thing that stands in the way of game and Faction balance. There was something before it, and there will be something after it. Although strong cavalry choices are not an automatic win since there are ways around them, otherwise we would be seeing brand new players joining and causing an issue like Mance Rayder a few Seasons ago.
Heavy Cavalry are not the same, which brings a universal change issue to the Units. CMON recognised this with the Riders of Highgarden that had the Lance rule featured on most Heavy Cavalry, but the base statistics bring them down to a Light Cavalry classification. Thus, they added a rule to give them something to make up for the universal change which even had to be updated further.
Tully Cavaliers and Knights of Casterly Rock are not going to be drastically affected by losing a die on the charge, but when engaged in combat, five dice for an 8pts Units will gives opponents an easy way around the threat, if they do not have a way to retreat such as from Robb Stark’s Tactics Cards. An outlier is the Starfall Knights who don’t have the defensive luxury or the added rules to account for this change and will likely be overshadowed by the cheaper light cavalry variant of the Starfall Outriders. This Unit probably could have remained the same.
Ever since CMON dialed back the lethality of the game, Units that could continue to deal out a large amount of damage became the focus of the meta. Ranger Hunters, Dothraki Veterans, Builder Crossbowmen, Golden Company Swordsmen, and Heavy Cavalry. All have the potential at the height of dominance to one shot or significantly cripple Units out of the game. If Heavy Cavalry are nerfed, it would then be those with multiple actions that cause an issue. Or if we get to a world where there is nothing that is lethal, then heavy healing and high defence would now become the problem.
It is a tough aspect to reconfigure, and I imagine CMON are slowly tweaking to find the right version and are not quite there yet. Tully Cavaliers are looking to be the best Heavy Cavalry pick in the game and are already in discussions about being applied to the Brotherhood Without Banners who are bringing their own heavier cavalry to the table. It would be best to come up with something to counter heavy cavalry since they will be crux in most lists for the next 6 months.
Free Folk Out of Balance
Season 4 saw a huge buff to the Free Folk in the form of their NCUs getting mostly better, Thenns becoming the new hotness, and Skinchangers returning to competitive play. Season 5 realigns the Free Folk by recognising areas that needed to be scaled back due to balance on the table and within the Faction but neglected to bring those rarely seen up to the podium.
Hidden Traps was universally changed to reduce the amount of hits by one. This aligns with the change the developers made to NCU Oberyn, but doesn’t result in Hidden Traps being less playable, just less relied upon. The list designed around chip damage have for the most part remained intact but with a slight tweak down from before. Those lists may need to be reworked to account for the slight changes but could be a net positive with the other changes.
Skinchangers being reduced by a point last season was insanity, and as a result the Attachment was spammed in almost every Free Folk list. Chip damage with the Bear, or just the buff to Morale were incredible for the Free Folk. Now Stalwart has been removed, and you must pick an animal during deployment for the whole game. Each animal had a slight rework with the Bear being completely different. Now the animals each give a buff to other Units attack those marked by them, from Vicious, Precision, and -1 to Saves. The one thing I personally hate about Free Folk is the lack of keywords to help their troops, and this adds a way to gain those. A great rework but does reduce some of the power that they had from last season.
However, there has been an exploit with the wording of the Bear where you can conger-line multiple Bears into the opponent’s deployment zone during the deployment phase. Whilst I can’t see many people doing this out of courtesy to their opponents, it is still incredible that it can be done.
The final piece to bring Free Folk down from oppressive is with Styr, by far their most popular Commander of late. Whilst removing Final Strike is a big deal with how potent it can be in a Free Folk force, Styr is still strong maintaining Thenn Defiance and Styr’s Vengeance, whilst also keeping his too great abilities. The new card encourages you to bring a Unit that can utilise the additional attack such as the Cave Dweller Savages that are powered up on their last rank or a Unit that has the Great Walrus Attachment. Styr still looks strong, and it will be difficult to look at another Commander.
It can be frustrating to go up against Free Folk at events due to the negative play experience of slowly chipping an opponent whilst road blocking everything else. It is a difficult one to figure out, and whilst there have been some positive changes here, there needs to be something more to reshape the Free Folk into a better gaming experience for both sides of the table.
Targaryens will Dominate Season 5
Sweeping changes across the Targaryen Faction may see them become the leading Faction of the Season. Almost all Commanders saw their worst card change to something so good that it is no longer an instant dump, whilst several Units saw a buff of some kind. This change sparked a new curiosity to try out new list designs for the Faction and is how we should all feel about our respective Factions on a seasonal update.
The biggest change to a Commander comes in the form of the Mother of Dragons who may usurp Khal Drogo for the best Commander in the Faction. Promise of Fire can turn a target into ash allowing Dragons to deal 3 wounds instead of D3 for the rest of the game against a specific Unit. This is incredibly strong on its own, but alongside this change Daenerys gained the Threaten Order, Dracarys increased from Short to Long Range, and Fire Made Flesh no longer replaces Overrun but instead replaces Field Control. Don’t forget these new Tactics Cards can be pulled out by Daenerys’ own ability. Many Targaryen players have been pulling those Dragons off their shelves since the update.
Most other Commanders saw a change to their Tactics Deck, with most being the attach card that was always dumped straightaway due to how invaluable they were. The change here removes the points scoring that you or sometimes your opponent could achieve from it, in favour for a simple buff. One of the highlights here is the change to Marselen, Grey Worm, and Skahaz, who all saw a change that allows their respective Units to benefit in addition. When you see Factions like the Umbers gaining benefit for being an Umber Unit, it has been disheartening to not see the same for Unsullied when led by Unsullied Commanders. It is a small but satisfying change that will see those Units taken more with their Commander.
Khal Drogo gained Critical Blow, Belwas has highest Attack Dice plus re-rolls, and Barristan blocks two Hits and automatically passes Morale Tests. All of them an incredible boost to these Commanders and have a significant place in their own lists. I can not think of anything worse than buffing Dothraki Cavalry further in a Drogo list but at least the card isn’t just instantly a dud when drawn. Barristan is a Commander overshadowed by their NCU and is not the only one in the game. But the changes to his Tactics Deck make him a contender for leading your forces.
I can see a lot of people playing around with Targaryens in Season 5 since it feels like a new lease of life with several changes to build lists around. This is the quality of changes that should have been felt across every Faction, but it has been a long time coming for Targaryen players and they should enjoy experimenting with rules they have never touched or used so little.
Update for Boltons Won’t Amount to Much
Boltons were rushed. It is hard to not see this as the case for their rules as it is nowhere near the quality we’ve come to expect with a new Faction added to the game. Because of this, CMON’s slight tweaking to fix issues are too slow to improve the disappointing release of this Faction. The changes are great for the Bolton Faction, added some more worth to Commanders, and holding back on some of the negatives for your Units and Tactics Cards.
However, the main issue must be the lack of synergy in the Faction. I truly believe, after playing with the Faction a lot and in a GT, they need interaction with the Tactics Board as well as vastly improved Base Tactics Deck to have more of a flow of achievement throughout the force. Right now, players feel as if they need to work hard to be at the same level as any other Faction not giving too much thought. This needs to be changed.
Outside of event play, Boltons can do okay depending on what they go up against, and quite often responses are along the lines of “big fish, small pond” in their opinion. The wider scope of the game shows Boltons are in a bad place and need an uplift still being the worst Faction in the game performance wise on stats even with three times as many games being played with Boltons instead of Neutrals.
The New rules with the Brotherhood Without Banners have made me theorise ways to improve the Faction and I may collect these in one place. But, the BWB are allowed to ally in some Units from other Factions not just Neutrals, and I could see this coming into play for the Boltons with the likes of the Starks or Lannisters.
Seasonal Update Too Little Too Late
The most voiced opinion in comments on social media platforms and videos from creators, is that this does not feel like a brand-new season with how little we have gotten in this update. It feels like a mid-season patch than anything substantial. Various Factions got changes that will do nothing in the grand scheme of things and only a handful of rules changes that are universal will amount to little significant difference.
However, Season 2 was a small update that had a focus on universal rules more so than a grand overture of changes. This was also the update that saw a negative reaction from the community with how little it did to change the game. Season 3 was then huge due to CMON needing to make up for the lack of major changes to the game, even testing the tenacity of the developers revealing all the changes on a live stream. This was then followed by Season 4 also being a big change to the game. Both mostly positively received. Although, all previous updates came with context from articles and/or streams whereas this season was dumped on us at the last minute and at the wrong time with no details of context.
Imagine if they came out and said this would be a smaller update focusing on some rewording and balancing with a major one coming later. Or that they are focusing on making the Tactics rules the best they can be before sending them off to the printers so they can make the early 2025 deadline for the crowdfund. Context can go a long way to helping the community of your game especially when their good will and happiness decides the fate of not just the main game but your future skirmish game.
The outlook for the players is that they are likely waiting a year for a further update if Tactics will affect the update in 6 months’ time. But it is a bitter taste to have players already begging for an update just when one had launched. Either CMON does not allow the deadline of Tactics to deter them from releasing a new update in Feb 2025, or we could see a negative growth in the game that is hard to rectify.
What We Can Do
We can enjoy our game as it stands. Season 4 was a great update that resulted in most players looking to try out all their new changes and few demanding changes that were missing or confusing. The game is in the best state it has been with some outliers. Enjoy what works well and try to experiment with unique combos you have never seen. I find a lot of fun when discovering something wild that hasn’t been done much but could amount to something strong.
Let CMON know. Whilst CMON have always struggled with their communication to the community of the game, the most common place they speak to people from is the FaceBook page where they are teasing images each week. They also shared a link to a form to give feedback on the mistakes from this season. If you want something addressing, or you want your opinion known it may be best to engage with these posts as they are likely more monitored than most. I would also recommend asking creators to speak up for you like Hits and Crits or Tourney Ground, both and others give voice to the community that CMON can listen into.
Spend some time hobbying. Whilst knowing the Boltons what not in a great place, I put a target in my mind for an event to have a force fully painted and based, even throwing in some conversions into the fourth, all for an event. I found a lot of joy painting and then playing with the models I had worked so long on. This is a great time to pick up a brush and paint those models in time for a local event. Perhaps there is a model you have had for a long while, or a themed list you want to devise, but hobbying can make even the worst models feel worth it.
Whilst the Season 5 update was underwhelming, the game is still a lot of fun and the community that as grown around it has never been more incredible. I have high hopes for the future of the game, and the new Faction added to the roster has sparked an excitement amongst a lot of people that I have not seen for a long time.
We still have the last few reviews of Tactics to finish, but we have a Community Spotlight for a legendary painter on the way, as well as some messing around with the new Targaryen Changes. Stay tuned!
Have any questions or feedback? Drop us a note in the comments below or email us at contact@goonhammer.com. Want articles like this linked in your inbox every Monday morning? Sign up for our newsletter. And don’t forget that you can support us on Patreon for backer rewards like early video content, Administratum access, an ad-free experience on our website and more.
